Grab your stapler or whatever you can find to turn your office utensils into a weapon as The Belko Experiment sets up this Battle Royale fight for survival.

Greg McLean follows up his disappointing feature The Darkness with this highly enjoyable movie that pits peers against peers where there can be only one person to survive.

Although the film does fall into predictable terrain, The Belko Experiment has a strong enough cast to propel the narrative along and provide the audience with the sort of delights that brought McLean to the attention of horror film lovers with Wolf Creek.

John Gallagher Jr who’s is fast making some smart choices following Mike Flanagan’s Hush and 10 Cloverfield Lane plays the heart of the movie, striving to keep everyone alive whilst sticking to his strong principles.

To counter his stance are some prolific performances from Tony Goldwyn (Scandal) and John C McGinley (Scrubs) alongside some comedic elements delivered by Josh Brener (Silicon Valley) and Sean Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, and writer for this film) to inject some much-needed humour into the macabre environment find themselves in.

And I haven’t even mentioned Michael Rooker’s involvement into the proceedings which is highly welcoming and an example of how awesome he can be despite his short screen time.

The Belko Experiment romps along with some awesome set pieces that feel realistic and not just shoved into place for the gore factor.

By its conclusion the movie rewards with a potential for further franchise development among a faceless nemesis in a human experiment that is purely set up on the basis of some ‘bigwigs’ scientific enjoyment.

McLean could well be back to finding his voice again, and with the Daniel Radcliffe film, Jungle next on the horizon, there’s more promise that this success will continue. 

• Paul Farrell